Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Lamma Enduro

Sunday past was an Enduro in the trueist sense of the word- a seriously hard how far can you ride in 5hrs endurance / suffer fest. I'm still waiting for official results but I'm pretty sure I was 6th overall and 4th in age category which is about as good as I can really hope for on a course with 2000m of climbing when up against 65kg Chinese guys. To be honest I just can't consider a 5hr mtb race on this course a race- it's just too insanely hard. I can race for 2 to 3 hours but after that it's not a race, it's an exercise in cramp avoidance. To put that into perspective I had 9 salt tablets, 7 litres of fluid (including electrolytes) as well as about 4 bananas and still cramped. Despite being only apx. 50km this race was up there with a 220km road race I did in Thailand in terms of effert expended according to the trusty Garmin / SportTracks. Maybe a team effort next year?!?http://www.actionasiaevents.com/

4 comments
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Well said Ed. I felt the same way after 2.5 hours. I started to cramp and was already in deep pain on every steep climb. i was thinking to myself "How in the hell am I going to do another 2.5 hours of this, I don't think I am going to make it". And like you I poured down electrolyte drinks, banana and salt tabs and started to massage my lets while on the flats or top of stairs and doing bend over stretches. It worked but I was always on the edge. To make up time on the granny gear climbs I was still able to hammer all downhill sections. I know it sounds crazy now but I wish I had made the cut off to do another lap....LOL. Bob Smith